on my chest she prayed;
i prayed too.
aloud, sometimes, i needed
the prayer read aloud
to you.
i was so unknowingly
hurt before you came;
the scars that
lie beneath
this skin shirt.
i am lonely
in this old place
that is now not
next to you.
at the least of it,
at the most of life,
i can be alive and free and
unchained in front of a
cloud of misery.